All-Si Photodetectors with a Resonant Cavity for Near-Infrared Polarimetric Detection

This work developed an all-Si photodetector with a surface plasmonic resonator formed by a sub-wavelength Au grating on the top of a Si-nanowire array and the same one beside the wires. The Au/Si interface with a Schottky barrier allows the photo-electron detection in near-infrared wavelength based on the internal emission of hot electrons generated by the surface plasmons in the cavity. Meanwhile, the Au sub-wavelength grating on the Si nanowire array acts as a polarizer for polarimetric detection. Finite-difference time-domain method was applied in the design of the novel device and state-of-art nanofabrication based on electron beam lithography was carried out. The characterization of the photo-electronic properties as well as the polarimetric detection demonstrate that the fabricated detectors on the silicon substrate possesses great prospects for sensing technology on all-Si.